SIT searches for 5,000 missing land mutation files in Panikauri and Majhiali panchayat areas
Telegraph | 10 May 2026
A special investigation team (SIT), probing into the alleged land mutation scam in the Rajganj block of Jalpaiguri, on Saturday searched Panikauri and Majhiali panchayat areas for some 5,000 missing land mutation files.
The move comes amid charges that the files disappeared during the tenure of Prashanta Barman, the absconding Rajganj BDO.
The SIT was formed following an order by the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench of Calcutta High Court a few months back, after a businessman sought a probe into the missing land mutation records. The SIT of officials from the land department and police began its probe in January.
On Saturday morning, the officials, led by block land and land reforms officer of Rajganj, Gopal Biswas, and the inspector-in-charge of Rajganj police station, Amitabha Das, searched the offices of the revenue inspectors near the Panikauri and Majhiali panchayat offices based on evidence suggesting these documents had been kept at the revenue offices before they disappeared.
Sources said that in the 1990s, massive buying and selling of land for micro, small, and medium industries began across Rajganj. Gradually, farmland, homestead land and plots belonging to SC and ST communities were allegedly converted and mutated for commercial purposes, violating land laws.
“Investigators suspect that from 2021 to 2025, thousands of land mutations were processed illegally, enabling repeated transfers of land ownership without any actual industrial development,” said a source.
The alleged irregularities reportedly extend across several gram panchayat areas of Rajganj, including those under the Dabgram-Fulbari Assembly constituency.
“The court-appointed probe team conducted the searches specifically to trace the missing land mutation files,” said Sandeep Ghosh, the Jalpaiguri district magistrate.
Biswas said: “Some files have been recovered. We are verifying if they are part of the missing records,” he said.
Raiganj's land irregularities had drawn the attention of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee as well.